Need
by lemony anemone
Summary: Sonya knows what she needs. She needs soda, snacks, and treats, but most of all, she's positive she needs a certain yoyo boyfriend. Response to Stepping into Darkness challenge by Essyllus. SonyaLee.


**Need**

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She liked him. There was no doubt about it. She liked him, period. Sonya sighed as she lounged in the kitchen. Today, Sector W could actually relax, no villains, no Father, no mission specs from Moon Base. Remembering Numbuh 65.3, and his snobbyness, she stuck out a tongue into the empty room. Take that Mr. Pocket Protector!

Yes, a day of relaxation left a lot of time for daydreaming, Sonya mused, and yet the last time they had a free day, she was miserable thinking about her crush the whole time - _Lee_.

Sonya became wide-eyed; she was not about to start _that_ again. Deciding she needed some action to clear her thoughts, Sonya became a whirlwind, storming the kitchen packing food into those convenient plastic baggies.

Even her crush couldn't interfere with her faithfulness to her job: soda, snacks, and treats officer! Eyes blazing with newfound determination, she skipped to the supermarket, singing, "Soda, snacks, treats! For Lee, Paddy, and me! Soda, snacks, treats!" As she skipped on inside the store, she froze mid-skip. Lee was with another GIRL?!?!

"Lee!" Sonya's eyes sparked with fury, and she was angry. Very angry, couldn't he see that she liked him? And here he was: with another girl! She wanted to yell with frustration, but at his confused stare, and the crowd of people looking towards her, she backed down. She shouldn't have said anything in the first place, and, what _was_ she doing? She wasn't even dating him or anything…"um…here!" Sonya frantically grabbed the nearest cookie box, and threw it to him, rather harshly. "Best snack in the whole place!" she chirped, and made her getaway as casually as she possibly could.

Outside, Sonya shook her head angrily. What was she doing again? Nothing, that's what! As she slowly walked back to the tree house, raindrops began falling over her hair, down her cheeks. Sonya gritted her teeth and growled, annoyed. She was smart enough to pick up on any clues if he ever _hinted_ that he liked her. She was smart enough to get it if he ever blushed! But no! She _had_ to crush on a boy, who never expressed himself at all! Who was absolutely, utterly clueless to her feelings. Whyyyy?

As she continued walking to the tree house in the rain, pigtails drooping considerably, the thunderclouds began to loom closer, dark, and scary.

Sonya looked up worriedly, ignoring the rain splashing onto her face, those clouds, it would make her world dark…really soon. She…hated the dark. She was absolutely terrified…of the dark.

Sonya began to walk faster, but it wasn't long before she broke into a run. Her legs began pumping wildly in panic, as the realization came to her - she had to make it to the tree house, she had to! Or else…Sonya shook her head. She didn't want to think about that now. As she plowed through puddles of murky water, mud splashed over her sneakers, her skirt, and her new pink shirt. Mud soaked into her socks, making her toes squish every step she took. She groaned, her mom was going to ground her forever! But no matter, as long as she made it to the tree house, before the dark, she would be all right…she would look at grounding with pleasure. _Please…_

Still a couple blocks from the haven, the clouds drew together, growling, tremendous. It was too late. Sonya was lost in the darkness.

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"So, Lee, I've been wondering for, well, _forever_. Do you always have your hat on?"

Lee found it hard to concentrate. He munched on the cookies Sonya tossed him; best cookies in the whole place? What was she talking about…they were fat free! Nevertheless, they gave him a necessary nutrient: sugar, and lots of it.

He knew she had been in the store a couple minutes back, and he knew it was pouring rain. That had worried him, and just now it had turned dark. That worried him even more. Sonya hated the dark. She couldn't think in the dark. She could accidentally hurt someone else…or herself.

"Lee?" More serious munching on his part answered her. "Lee!" He looked at her surprised, why were girls yelling at him today? She looked at him sweetly. "Do you always wear your hat?"

"Yeah." _Could Sonya possibly have made it to the tree house by now? _The girl became more and more annoyed by his silence. But, Lee was cute, and…cool. She bit back her irritance, and tried to continue the conversation.

"Why?"

"It's cool." _No way. Sonya's fast, but she's not that fast…not fast enough to outrun the storm. _The girl waited stonily. She waited for Lee to say something else, but the one called Fate decided to disappoint her. _Sonya probably needs my help right now._

"Got to go. See ya later." The girl glared.

"If you leave me here, there won't _be_ a later Lee." He looked outside, silently considering. It was raining, and dark. He made up his mind. He shrugged, and gave her a final goodbye.

"See ya." He never did say much. He ran out of the store, into the rain, into the dark. But he wasn't swallowed by the darkness, he wasn't lost. He was a beacon of light cutting through the blackness. He was looking for his friend. He would never let her down.

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Sonya ran blindly. She was lost, lost in this darkness that choked her, suffocated her, leaving her scared and trembling. "Umf." Sonya let out a startled sound, when she made contact with the branches of a willow tree. Dizzy and worn out from both fear and constant running, she decided to crawl under its branches and sit there; at the very least, the tree protected her from the worst of the rain.

Thunder. Lightning. The sound of millions of raindrops falling from heaven. Sonya felt very small, very insignificant. In her dark world, time stopped. Her senses sharpened, her pulse beat rapidly, and her head turned this way and that. Her ears caught the sound of sneakered feet running closer and closer. In the cover of the willow's moving arms, Sonya sat, her pale, skinny arms clutching its middle _hard_, as if it was her last anchor to this world.

And that was how Lee found her. Her small frame crouched next to the great trunk, her eyes shut tight, and one small hand shaking as she pointed a gumball shooter in his general direction.

"Stop - or, or I'll shoot!" Lee grinned widely. _How was she supposed to shoot with her eyes closed?_ "I'm warning you -" Tried as he might, Lee couldn't suppress a chuckle. It was an odd sound coming from him…Sonya surely didn't recognize it, she never had heard him laugh, and she panicked at what she interpreted as an evil _cackle_.

"Yahhh!" _Puh, puh, puh, puh. _Sonya let out a rapid volley of shots from her trusty gumball shooter randomly into the blackness. Lee's eyes widened; he wasn't laughing now. He used his skills to let an orange yo-yo fly and wrap around a branch, and managed to swing himself bodily out of the way. He wasn't the yo-yo tactician of Sector W for nothing.

Sonya stopped shooting instantly. She opened her eyes and squinted, looking hopefully into the darkness. She had heard the best sound in the world. The whirring sound of an unraveling yo-yo. The sound that was Lee. She sank back against the tree, relief flooding through her like a balm. She dropped the shooter onto the ground, and used her free hands to wring out water from her sogging pigtails, until she felt the presence of someone swinging through the air, and landing beside her.

Turning, she saw him. Hat-clad, wet, and muddy - And in that moment, there was no one else that she would rather see.

He silently held out a hand, and she took it, their fingers intertwined like knotted yo-yo strings, snarled, intricate, unfathomable.

Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be.

They were friends. The best. And right now, a friend was what she needed most.

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_Other SonyaLee fics to satisfy all SonyaLee shippers._

_Embrace - Essyllus_

_The Light of Comfort in the Dark - FoxieSango_


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